Kona releases his fourth
Q1SP, and it is a mixed bag. And I've got
a lot to say about it.
First I'll discuss the looks. They're quite
original, a cross between brown medieval
and blue medieval, but, for some reason,
the map doesn't have much sense of atmosphere
- almost all blue maps with the exception
of the IKBlue ones (which have their own
atmosphere) have an excellent 'Wizard' or
E2 feel. Unfortunately, Grisly Manifest
lacks this atmosphere that is a trademark
of most blue maps.
Another thing, the map is called a Castle,
only it isn't really a Castle. But, I guess
Charmhood was called a Cathedral and it
wasn't really that either. Ah well. Back
to the looks; they are original, atmosphere
lacks however; and further on the bad side,
they are quite dark and plain. However,
I suspect that the looks had to be rather
plain in order to make a map that is this
big!
The one exception to the generally plain
looks was the upper brown levels, with the
'imp head' trim outlining angular walls.
Not very detailed, still, but it did look
quite cool. Overall, the looks were interesting
in areas, but below average.
Now on to the map's size and layout. What
a massive map! This is one of the larger
Q1SPs I've seen, and Kona has built an excellent,
interconnective layout as usual. This has
a downside, however - it is probably possible
to get lost since most areas look quite
similar. I didn't, however. The upside is
that the interconnectivity helps out the
gameplay, returning to old areas through
new doors, every locked door is explored,
the layout is very complex without bogging
down the player wandering around trying
to find which door he just opened. Somehow
the path to go from place to place was always
clear, despite this interweaving layout.
As well, the great layout adds to the looks,
and the general sense, as a mapper, of 'Wow,
I'm back here now!?' was quite high in this
map. Especially when the final gatehouse
connected back to the main Castle area!
How the hell did *that* happen!
So, a really big map, with an excellent
layout.
And finally, the gameplay. Lots of new
monsters here -nailgun Ogres who lunge like
Fiends, the Snakeman from Kona's earlier
maps, Axemen and Knights from Coven of Ebony,
Centroids from Scourge of Armagon, and probably
more that I forgot to mention. Some of these
were great additions, the new Ogres were
well used and fun to battle, while I'm sure
he speeded up the Axemen - now another melee
monster nearly as dangerous as a Fiend!
However the 'Boss Hell Knight' from Egyptian
Myth was annoying to fight, he took way
too many hits and barely even got off a
shot or two at me. With the huge amount
of monsters and tougher ones, it looks like
Kona did what I was trying to do with Coven
Of Ebony, only more successfully.
Besides the new guys, there's your basic
Knights, Hell Knights, Scrags, Fiends, and
of course, lots of Shamblers and Vores.
And I mean lots of Shamblers! In some cases,
*hordes* of Shamblers! This has a downside
as it really downplays the 'horrific' element
that Shamblers have - traditionally it has
been a single Shambler surprising you with
that roar when you're low on supplies -
e1m5 being a good example. However it isn't
that bad, slicing through fiends, shamblers
and vores results in a doom-like 'I am God'
slaughter fest where you just burn your
way through the map's 132 enemies (I killed
'em all) like they aren't there. Well that's
not really accurate, as the map can get
quite hard in some areas. About 2/3 the
way through the map there's an area with
two shamblers that was difficult, and the
end was incredible. LTH's last, Exodus,
had a nasty surprise at the end, but this
map puts that to shame. First you walk into
a dark corridor after slaughtering an army
of baddies, and I expected that to be the
exit. So, smiling, I grabbed all the ammunition
in sight and blasted the hell out of the
'final' army. However, that wasn't the exit
- it led outdoors and there were more Shamblers
there! (which were fun to fight after I
just wasted all of my ammo). So after them
was a gatehouse, which I expected to be
the exit. It wasn't - it was a trap with
*more* shamblers and a hell knight boss.
So I killed *them*, expecting THEN to find
the exit. Only then the entire wall opened
up and three more Shamblers and a Vore teleported
in! Then I found that this gatehouse exit
connected back to the main castle (wow!)
and THEN the exit was there.
I've heard complaining that there aren't
enough supplies in this map, well, some
areas get a bit tight but overall there
are enough supplies. However, the Snakeman
and the Centroid monsters most definately
look out of place. Both of these belong
in desert or base environments, I don't
know what the hell they are doing in a cold
dark castle place. They detracted from the
atmosphere severely (if there was a whole
lot to begin with!).
So, overall:
Looks: original + somewhat interesting,
however, plain, dark (a bad dark), and lack
atmosphere.
Size + Layout: Massive size and excellent
layout, one of the best I've seen.
Gameplay: The best way to judge a map. Did
I enjoy playing this map? You bet. It was
a tough challenge, 20 minutes with 130 monsters,
and it's a definate keeper. Do I reccommend
it? Damned right I do.
Damn, this was a long review. Heh, don't
expect this as a precedent for further reviews
after this, though. Kona's best overall,
I think, is still Egyptian Myth, which I
gave an 86, and which had a great layout
and excellent original looks (and the Snakeman
actually looked in-place) as well. However,
this map, despite its shortcomings, was
simply more fun - so I'm going to score
it higher, even though Alk07 is overall
a better map. Confused? Ah well.
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